Due to the fastidious culture
requirements and slow growing nature of M.
plutonius, measuring antibiotic susceptibility of this organism using
traditional techniques such as a disc diffusion assay, which is a test that
uses antibiotic - impregnated discs to determine whether particular bacteria
are susceptible to specific antibiotics, is not possible. Oxytetracycline
hydrochloride (OTC) is the antibiotic of choice for the treatment of EFB.
However, only two reports of the sensitivity of M. plutonius to this antibiotic have been published (Waite et al., 2003; Hornitzky and Smith, 1999)
and both these studies indicated that all strains tested were sensitive to OTC.
In both studies an agar plate method was used. This involves incorporating
antibiotic at decreasing concentrations into culture plates (see section 5) of
EFB culture medium, to determine the lowest concentration at which growth would
occur. This methodology would be suitable for testing the susceptibility of M. plutonius to other antibiotics